Among the swords, ten were short and one-edged, of which I represent two under No. 442 and 442a; they consist each of one solid piece of bronze, and measure, when entire, from 2 ft. to 2 ft. 3 in. in length. The handle is too thick to have been covered with wood, and must have been used as it is: the end of it forms a ring, by which the sword was suspended to the shoulder-belt (τελαμών) or to the girdle (ζωστήρ or ζώνη). As these short one-edged swords are, properly speaking, nothing else than long knives, they evidently represent the original meaning of the Homeric word, φάσγανον,[342] which is derived, by a euphonic transposition of the letters, from the same root as that of σφάγη and σφάζω (slaughter), and thus this weapon must primitively have been used chiefly for slaughtering animals, and, perhaps, also for killing in close fight; but the name gradually lost its original signification, and in Homer it is perfectly synonymous with ξίφος and ἄορ.
There was also found a double-edged weapon with a long tube (αὐλός); but this latter being very narrow, it is hardly possible that it can be a lance, and I think it is a long dagger-knife, the handle of which has been made hollow, merely to make the weapon less heavy. No. 443 is a fragment of the blade of a two-edged bronze sword, whose ridge is serrated on both sides, either for the sake of ornamentation, or for the purpose of making the wounds inflicted with the sword more dangerous. Another weapon (No. 444) is formed by soldering two or three long narrow thick plates of bronze; and in the interior of the lower part, which is round, we see a great many small bronze pins, whose presence is just as inexplicable as the use of the weapon itself. From the point where the lower crevice ends, it is quadrangular; but its thickness gradually diminishes towards the end, which forms a small but sharp horizontal edge. There are sixteen marks of small nails or pins in the left border of the lower crevice, which lead me to venture the opinion that the lower round part must have been fixed in a handle of wood or bone, and that the weapon may have been used as a dagger. I may here mention that the Trojan Treasure contained two weapons similar in form but of one solid piece of metal.[343]
Nos. 443, 444.
Fragment of a two-edged Bronze Sword, and another weapon, probably a Dagger.
Sepulchre IV. Half-size.
Nos. 445, a, b, c.